After Hanoi, I flew to Luang Prabang, Laos. I was really excited to go to Laos. There is a huge Hmong population in Wisconsin and I really know very little about their culture or background. I was really interested in seeing where the Hmong come from. I started my trip on the smallest plane I have ever been on. There were 50 people on the flight and the airplane had propellers. However this was the first flight on my trip that served food.
Luang Prabang is a more of a village than city. Because of this there weren't really hostel options, so I splurged and got myself a $25 guest house room. You never realize how nice it is to sleep in a room by yourself, until you share rooms for 3 weeks straight.
And it had an amazing shower!
Why don't all houses have real shutters? There is nothing better than opening real shutters in the morning.
Usually there is a very scary rickety bamboo bridge that is a block away from my guest house. Unfortunately in the wet season the bridge is swept away, so I was left with this super scary rickety metal bridge that was a 20 minute walk away. I might have had a mini freak out in the middle of the bridge when I looked down and saw a whole in the bridge where I was about to put my foot.
I guess the views make up for the bridge.
While in Luang Prabang I had three things on my to do list for the day: visit the ethnography museum, royal palace, and a temple. The museum ended up being closed and the palace and temple ended up taking me an hour so I had the rest of the day free.
This temple is Haw Pha Bang and I was again fooled into thinking it was very old. Turns out it was built in 2006 (or at least completed construction started in 1963).
This is the Laotian Royal Palace. While at first glance this does not appear like much of a palace, you have to keep in mind that this building is still way more than anyone else living in Laos would have had.
Unfortunately the palace was less of a museum and more of a house tour but it showed that I do not know anything about this countries history. Apparently the royal family ruled from 1904-1975, when the communist party, Pathet Lao, overthrew the monarchy. The last king's grandson is currently living in Paris. He and his brother fled to France as refugees in 1981. The crown prince has held a couple of conferences meeting with representatives from all the ethnic groups of Laos. He has also started the Lao Representative Abroad Council.
This is a statue of king Sisavang Vong, This guy was king from 1904-1959. He had 50 children with 15 wives. Unfortunately 14 of his children all died in one boating accident.
I don't think anyone will argue that colonialism was ever a good thing, but I really love the architecture from that time period.
This is Wat Xieng Thong, a temple built in 1560. This was the royal temple where the kings of Luang Prabang and Laos were crowned.
I loved that every wall was covered in paintings and mosaic.
My favorite part was a green sequined dragon on the roof.
While traveling it is always a balancing act of wanting to see and learn about a culture but not turning the local people into a show. Because of this I was very apprehensive about going to watch the morning alms giving, but my last morning the owner of the guest house said I had to go. I made sure I kept my distance and was respectful.
Buddhism is a very important part of the culture. Most boys in Laos will spend part of their life as a monk. This may seem strange to outsiders, but if you think of it the same way as people in the US attending Catholic School it makes sense. The average yearly income in Laos is $1,200. Sending their sons to live and learn with the monks is a way to save money and also allow their sons better opportunities.
Every morning the monks walk through the streets of Luang Prabang and collect alms, or donations from the people. I was in Luang Prabang on a holiday or holy day, no one could really tell me what was happening. However because it was an important day everyone in the city was out at 6:00AM to offer rice, crackers, candy, and lots of other kinds of snacks to the monks. It was very cool to see the people line up in their best clothes and then silently offer the monks their alms.
If you look closely you can see how everyone is wearing a sash. Traditionally the women wore wrap skirts and sashes. The pattern woven into the sash and skirts is different for every ethnic group.
The photo on the right is the oldest monk so he walks first down the line. The line then continues by age. The youngest monks were around 9 or 10.
I had one rule for this trip. If I was asked to do something, I couldn't say no (obviously I wouldn't say yes to anything illegal or dangerous). After touring the palace and the temple, I had a whole afternoon open. I was wandering around looking in shops when I walked past a man writing an advertisement for a weaving class starting in a hour. While no one specifically asked me if to do the weaving class, I decided that I would probably never have this chance again so I went for it!
Laos has become well known for its textiles, weaving, and embroidery. The weaving class was taught in an open building right on the river bank. I cannot think of a more beautiful setting. It was such a peaceful afternoon watching the river, weaving, every hour a guy would bring some new exotic fruit juice; basically it was heaven.
I didn't know the woman was taking a video, that's why you get the weird smile and pause in the video. Here you can see how I used my feet to switch which strings were on top and on the bottom. I am sure there are very technical terms for all these things, but the master weaver helping me didn't speak any English.
For those of you who have never weaved before, these vertical strings are the "pattern." In order to get the pattern you pull down one horizontal string, that string separates the strings you want on top, or to show. Then you continue bringing down the next pattern string changing what shows in your weaving. It took me at least an hour to figure out what I was doing with the stupid strings. Thankfully I had a master weaver beside me silently judging the whole time.
The place where I took the class was Ock Pop Tok. It is a craft center and restaurant. They teach classes in silk weaving, basket weaving, and natural dyes. Even the table signs were made with bobbins.
Before spending the rest of my Lao Kip at the night market, I decided to climb a mountain. The views were stunning, my sweat drenched self was not.
This cat did not care that it was in a holy place. I think it thought everyone was there to visit him.
Look at my amazing weaving! You cannot tell the size in the photo but my weaving is about 2 feet long.
After three short days in Luang Prabang I embarked on my second boat journey. This time I took a slow boat up the Mekong River. When I say slow boat, I mean sloooooow. I was on this boat for a total of 18 hours over two days.
The first day I spent the day watching the beautiful scenery pass by. This boat was used mainly by the locals. As the day went by the boat would pull up to different docks and people would jump on and off. I think this might have been the most remote place I have ever been. These villages were small bamboo huts with naked children running around. By the end of the first day our boat had a crate of chickens, three mopeds, and another pile of bags full of who knows what. The slow boat is the only means of transportation through this area.
This is the slowboat, the back closed in part of the boat is where the family lives. The front open part is full of car seats, as in seats pulled out of cars. I am very confused on where they get that many old seats from.
I loved watching the fog and clouds move over the mountains both mornings.
Near the end of the second day, the river becomes the border between Thailand and Laos. In this picture Laos is on the right and Thailand on the left.
The boat ended in Huay Xai, Laos. I had one night there, then was set to go on a three day trip into the rainforest. The night started out very nicely with a pizza dinner and this view. It was great until I realized I didn't have enough money to pay for my dinner. Thankfully a girl I met on the boat was able to pay. I thought it would be fine, I would go to the ATM and take out more cash. It was a great plan until the only ATM in town would not work with my card, that's when I really started panicking. My mom got a lovely freak out phone call early in the morning. Luckily I was able to book a hotel online paying that way, and the Gibbon Experience office was able to charge my card and give me cash the next day. Thank goodness, or I would still be stuck in Laos.
No comments:
Post a Comment